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Five Degrees acquires Icelandic software house Libra

Five Degrees, a leading Fintech banking software company, acquires Libra, a leading provider of core banking IT systems in the financial sector in Iceland. The acquisition boosts

Five Degrees’ international growth ambitions, enabling Five Degrees to offer its full-service proposition of digital banking solutions, supporting financials worldwide to meet modern standards.

Libra adds value for prospects and customers of Five Degrees through its offering of core banking solutions in the field of securities and loans. By supplementing Libra’s products and services to the current core banking solution, Five Degrees will be able to provide a complete digital transformation path to its customers. This strengthens the position of Five Degrees in the global market for Digital Banking Platforms.

The acquisition allows Five Degrees to provide a clear roadmap to its customers to retire obsolete and expensive back-end systems. Moreover, banks can replace specific activities with more agile core banking products and outsource their core banking systems into a shared and fully compliant service environment. By utilizing the combined strength of Five Degrees and Libra products, banks can now profit from higher efficiency and lower costs.

Libra employs over 40 highly-educated professionals with unique core banking expertise while specialized in the same technology stack as Five Degrees, which makes it possible to interact and exchange them with their colleagues of Five Degrees. Moreover, they are excited to show their expertise on a comprehensive global platform. The acquisition reinforces the commitment of Five Degrees to innovation and accelerates its strategy to further grow its business in the global market of Digital Banking Platforms.

Enabling banks making the switch to modern standards
In the upcoming years, the need for banks to make the switch to digital will increase significantly. They will have to invest in a digital core that enables communication with the latest solutions in the fintech marketplace. Five Degrees supports banks during their transition to this “New Normal”, preparing them to meet the modern standards that customers and regulators demand today.

“We are very happy with the acquisition of Libra, which is a very strong player in the financial market in Iceland. It is the ambition of Five Degrees to expand internationally and achieve a global market leadership position in digital banking”. states Martijn Hohmann, CEO of Five Degrees. “We have developed a clear-cut strategy to achieve that ambition. The combined expertise and track-record of Five Degrees and Libra uniquely positions us to support customers to transfer smoothly to ‘digital’ and to benefit from increased flexibility and reduced costs. This acquisition represents a perfect opportunity to accelerate progress and deliver value to our clients and employees”.

Thordur Gislason, CEO of Libra says: “Libra has been actively seeking opportunities to grow for the last few years to support our customers and the Icelandic financial market into the future. To become a part of Five Degrees enables us to support our clients with new technology, products and services. Besides, it creates opportunities to utilize our knowledge and experience in a larger market. We believe that our future plans have a great fit with the vision and strategy of Five Degrees. We have very exciting times ahead of us”.

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Financial technology. It powers practically every transaction we make, everything we earn, buy, sell, borrow and lend. It connects people, instantly and without friction, to products and to each other. Fintech unites global communities, from urban networks of traders to the smallest of rural businesses. Plugging into financial technology can literally open up whole new worlds of opportunities. It’s a great leveler, an unleasher of human potential, the very stuff of the entrepreneurial spirit in everyone. read more

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